I have waxed goudas before, after air-drying, with varying results, but always before any molds had a chance to populate the exterior. I have two cheddared wheels that I want to wax, after several months of natural rind development, in order to limit moisture loss during extended aging. Alas, I have no vacuum bag capabilities as of yet.
Should I brush and scrub 'til my rind is pristine, or just a quick cleaning?
I have a nice population of yellow and orange cities developing on these cheeses, as well as a few slum areas with the dreaded blues and blacks.
I have a Gruyere that started life as a washed rind , then I decided to wax it , after a month or so of rind development , I dipped it in very hot wax , hoping to sterilize the surface somewhat , so far , it looks good , nothing growing under the wax , it's been about a month now in wax.
I should mention that I use a small deep fryer as wax pot , I got the wax to 300 degrees beforehand , I know it's kind of dangerous getting it too hot , but I keep a fire extinguisher right at hand.
I will double check it closely again today and let you know if there are any problems with it.
Well, I decided to go with a clean rind, and found a small patch of slip skin dead-center of my raw milk cheddar. ??? Not good! The other wheel cleaned up nicely and should get waxed tomorrow along with my fourth Gouda.
Now, to research this dreaded slip skin! >:(
So cheddar doesn't get slip skin like Camemberts do? I don't know if maybe the humidity was too high in the mini cave, or if the curd retained too much moisture, but a patch of rind stuck to my glove during the rind cleaning process, revealing a creamy paste underneath. Gadzooks! I certainly can't wax it now, and don't know if it will dry out anytime soon.
The wheel is five weeks old, made with raw milk, so can't be eaten for another month. I wanted to age it six! >:(
Not sure of the wisdom behind this, but I waxed all three of these yesterday, the Gouda in front, the older P&H cheddar, and the injured cheddar on the right. We'll see the results!